The PTI promised construction of 5 million houses over five years across the country, but the new government is set to face some tough challenges. Here are some hard facts: Pakistan is increasingly becoming urban—per Census 2017, urban population is 36 percent, but satellite imaging studies conducted back in 2016 argue that Pakistan may be 70 percent urbanized. Nearly half of the urban population lives in slums or informal settlements, many living under the poverty line. Outdated but alarming numbers suggest the housing backlog is 10-12 million houses with an increment of 270,000 gap added each year. Some cities are better managed than others, but most remain underdeveloped facing an acute shortage of land.
According to a policy brief published by the Wilson Center in 2014, 68 percent of the population from the lowest income segment, have only one percent of the housing units within their buying reach. The housing shortage is almost entirely a middle class to poor problem, with no existing solutions forthcoming in these segments. Upcoming housing schemes and development happening is for the affluent group. This also means that the scarce land is being allocated toward only one small segment of the market.
Meanwhile, city planning is a pipe dream. Any urban dweller in Karachi, for instance, can vouch for the impossible living conditions in cities marred by heavy pollution, broken roads, land congestion, open sewerage, virtually no waste management resulting in garbage laden streets and a shortage of clean drinking water. The five master plans for Karachi dating back 1951 have been insufficient and major infrastructure projects have been undertaken, for instance the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT), without proper planning.
Though land is in shortage, housing colonies are favored toward low-density building that caters to a small section of the population and causes underutilization of land. Operation of land mafias is also common who buy subsidized land or grab land illegally and sell it to low-income segment who then form informal housing settlements in these areas. These localities are largely underdeveloped with no proper infrastructure or amenities available. The lack of a centralized land registration system in provinces and un-clarity of titles only allow land grabbers to flourish. These issues are also reasons why lending institutions distance themselves from providing mortgage or building financing.
It has been clear for years now that growing cities simply cannot create as much number of houses as needed, horizontally. Housing supply needs to go wide and vertical. Since there are no population control policies in place, urban planning together with progressive bylaws and zoning regulations to boost high-density and mixed land use are important to ensure the best utilization of land.
New housing projects and schemes in outskirts must come with the infrastructure in place including access to transport, health and education, while apartment buildings in the inner cities need to introduce innovative solutions to provide access to basic amenities like water and electricity while also not burdening the cities by splurging on these scarce resources.
Registration framework requires an overhaul to bring clarity into titles so that banks can be open to taking them on as collateral. Meanwhile, the speculative price hikes of lands need to be contained. These are caused by scarcity, and a lack of restriction on builders to start construction at stipulated times which allow land to be passed on by investor after investor leading to price accretion.
Back in 2010, the Zardari government brought the Sindh High Density Development Board Act into law that highlighted high density zones in the city for the construction of high-rise buildings. The law faced significant backlash given that no urban planners were taken on board and no technical studies were conducted and rules were simply made to support construction of vested interests using discretionary powers.
Experts were also concerned about the Board’s singular focus on density when urban development was a much more complicated issue to be dealt through a central master planning rather than a regulatory authority. In 2014, the Sindh Special Development Board Act was passed by the provincial assembly to facilitate low cost housing schemes, high rise buildings and rehabilitation of informal settlements and slums in Sindh. Experts argue that there are simply too many boards and regulatory authorities with overlapping purposes bringing further inefficiency into the already inefficient system. In the past, when laws have been passed, they have not been sufficient.
It is clear that high rise and innovative smart buildings ought to be the future of cities in Pakistan, much like any other fast growing emerging economy, but this cannot be done unilaterally. Evidently, all matters of land administration and regulation need to come under the ambit of larger urban and town planning.